A few years back, Baby Girl made her grand entrance on Mother’s Day. She definitely added a lot of punch and verve to the first part of May for our family.

In honor of Baby Girl, mothers, and the “X” in the A-Z Blog Challenge, we’re equating the X chromosome with females today. Let’s celebrate some Girl Power! All of you males with moms, wives and sisters can celebrate along with us.

Here’s 18 varied and interesting facts about women**:

General

The word “woman” is believed to have derived from the Middle English term wyfman, broken down simply as the wife (wyf) of man. In Old English, women were described simply as wyf, while the term man was used to describe a human person, regardless of gender.

The English word “girl” was initially used to describe a young person of either sex. It was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century that the term was used specifically to describe a female child. (Fascinating stuff!)

The biological sign for the female sex, a circle placed on top of a small cross, is also the symbol for the planet Venus.

The English language originally delineated between women in different stages of life with the terms “maiden,” “mother,” and “crone.” A maiden referred to a young girl who was unmarried, a mother referred to a woman in her child-bearing years, and a crone described a post-menopausal woman. (I sooooo love the word, “crone!”)

Biological

The average height of a woman in the U.S. is approximately 5 feet 4 inches, and the average weight is about 163 pounds. (I find this sad considering that the “ideal” for most women is to be 30-40 pounds less than that.)

There are roughly four million more women than men in the U.S. (This completely explains some of the dating issues we’ve discussed here at More Cowbell.)

The most common cause of death for American women is heart disease, which causes just over 27% of all mortalities in females. Cancer ranks just below, causing 22% of female deaths.

The probability of a woman giving birth to a baby girl instead of a baby boy increases significantly the nearer the mother lives to the equator. While the cause of this gender selection is unknown, scientists believe the constant sunlight hours and abundant food supply in tropical regions may favor female births.

Historical

The first Mother’s Day was held on May 10, 1908, and was organized by Anna Jarvis in West Virginia and Philadelphia. Congress designated the second Sunday in May as a national day of recognition for mothers in 1914.

International Women’s Day is held each year on March 8. The annual event was first observed worldwide in 1909.

Approximately 14% of active members in the U.S. armed forces today are women. (Thank you, Ladies!!) In 1950, women comprised less than 2% of the U.S. military.

The first female governor of a U.S. state was Wyoming governor Nellie Tayloe Ross, elected in 1924. Wyoming was also the first state to give women the right to vote, enacting women’s suffrage in 1869.

The first country to grant women the right to vote in the modern era was New Zealand in 1893.

According to an ancient Sumerian legend, the universe was created by a female, the goddess Tiamat. This role of a female creator is not unique, as the Australian Aboriginal creation myth also credits the creation of life to a woman.

Sexual

The record for the most female orgasms is 134 in one hour. (That’s what I’m talkin’ about!)

Because there is an increase in blood circulation around the genitals during a woman’s period, she may experience more powerful orgasms during this time. Click here to see the incredible post August McLaughlin did about the other benefits of the female cycle.

The word “clitoris” is Greek for “divine and goddess like.” The clitoris is present only in female mammals. It is actually approximately 4 inches long, with 3/4 of the clitoris extending inside a female’s body.

Women are capable of having different types of orgasms, depending on the stimulation. The clitoral orgasm is the most commonly known, often the most powerful, and the most often achieved. The second type is a vaginal orgasm. The third kind is a blended orgasm, or when a woman’s vagina and clitoris are simultaneously stimulated. Some women can also have an orgasm through kissing, nipple stimulation, or simply pressing their legs together.

What else do you know about women? I’ll take all of it – be it interesting, funny, unique or sad (I left most of the sad facts out of this post). Are there things about women that have surprised or inspired you? Enquiring minds always want to know here at More Cowbell!

49 Responses to X is for X Chromosome: 18 Interesting Facts About Women

Great random facts! I’m quite interested in voting rights for women and did not know that Sweden was the first one to introduce voting for women in 1718 (OK, with severe limitations and rescinded soon after), most recent one was United Arab Emirates (2006), most recent Western country – Switzerland in 1990 (the last of the cantons was forced to finally introduce universal suffrage, under pressure from the Federal Supreme Court).

Wow, great info! My thoughts — random here too:
* Nellie from Wyoming barely beat out Miriam Ferguson for that governor spot. Affectionately known as Ma Ferguson, Texas’s 1st female governor took the seat after her husband’s death.
* The fact about heart disease and the 134 orgams in an hour are related somehow. I just know it!
* There is no function for the clitoris other than pleasure.
* Women blink twice as often as men.

Amazing. A lot of that stuff I didn’t really know or realize. It always blows my mind when we take a look at how far we’ve come and grown.
OK…134 orgasm…shut up! I want to know what woman had 134 orgasms in AN HOUR and then I want to promptly kick her in the quiff out of sheer jealousy! Seriously. She should stop bragging – that shit get you killed. LOL!!
GREAT post Jenny….love it!

I’m with Raelyn on wanting to know who recorded it, etc. Being a practical soul, I’m way more interested in what they used to achieve the 134. I think there would be a run on those “toys” in epic proportions. A “sold out in 30 minutes” sort of thing…

OKAY! OKAY!! My FB and twitter have been lighting up all night with my obviously missed comments and attention that this post deserves.

Well first off – yes 134 orgasms in one hour IS THE OFFICIAL the record. Natalie had 145 in the practice hour prior to Guinness World Record’s officials landing at the airport. She only misled all of you with the kicking of the quiff comment as she hates the spotlight and attention! ROFL!!! They don’t call it Hubby’s Corner for nothing!

LOVE this post!! Go Wyoming!! Fascinating stuff. I’m almost done reading The Tao of Equus and she delves into the history of feminine energy and power in the world since the dawn of man. It’s an incredibly dense read and but I feel so empowered each time I read it. Females ruled in societies for millenia. It’s only in “recent” history that we lost our power (but are now regaining 🙂 Thank you for this!

The first woman Prime Minister was Mrs Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka in 1960, then came Indira Gandhi in India in 1966 and Golda Meir in Israel in 1969. Since then there have been 60 women Prime Ministers or Presidents in different countries. But not in America!

I saw that fact about Mrs. Bandaranaike! I just didn’t have room to fit in everything I wanted. 🙂 I really saw how sexist America still is in the last election when I watched what the media put Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin through. It was brutal.

I love the equator tidbit – how fascinating is that and I wonder why? Does the “boy” sperm run slower uphill the closer he gets to the equator to meets his egg mate? Must be the heat slowing him down. We females are just heartier! LOL

I think the chromosome debate is fascinating. I love also how many women display “male” traits and many men display “female” traits. As for me, I would have loved to have born a boy 🙂

What a fantastic comment, Donna! I ended up reading a lot about male/female embryos, etc. in the course of research for this and for my high-risk pregnancy memoir. The thought until 15 years ago was that all fetuses started as girls because the male sex organs don’t begin to develop until certain hormones are released at about 6 weeks.

Kiss-gasms. I love it! Thanks for including me in this fantastic post, Jenny. Empowering information, to say the least! Funny—based on my family, I’d have guessed that being away from the equator increases the chance of having girls. My three sisters collectively have 8 girls in Minnesota. 😉 You just never know.

That’s really interesting about how living nearer to the equator increases the possibility of a woman having a girl than a boy, never heard that before.
Great post.
In 1971 Irish women rode the ‘Contraceptive Train’ from Dublin to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Women in Ireland were still almost second class citizens at that time and contraception was banned.

The technique is called OMing in just fifteen minutes a day you can improve your sex life and experience true female satisfaction. According to Timothy Ferriss it is ‘Required reading for every man on the planet’ So check it out.

All I’m prepared to say is that Hugo was riveted by this and … er … that’s it. Fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes at night. Wish I’d found it years ago and my girls received one in their Christmas stocking. Not sure if they’ve read it yet because they refuse to discuss this stuff with their mother – but they’ll crack one day!

WOW, Christine! What a resource. You can bet I’ll be running over to Amazon to check that out. (As will everyone else that reads all the comments.) Putting “slow” with “sex” is enough to give most women a quick “freebie orgasm.” LOL…

Who knew calling someone a clitoris could be such a compliment?
Divine and Goddess like? I wonder if working this into my pet-name repository will keep me in the good graces of my lovely Clitoris! I can hear myself now:
Nobody disses my Clitoris!
Isn’t my Clitoris the best?
Oh Baby – you are such a Clitoris!!!
Nobody’s wife is more clitoris than mine!
Ouch! Clitoris – you are looking sooo fine tonight!
The list could go on and on…

I know it’s been a bit stuffy at my place lately, but is it ever hot in here today! And all because of a simple letter like the X! For cryin’ out loud! I don’t think after Christine MacKenzie’s comment that there’s too much else to say except that I’m heading over to Amazon also! LOL! In fact I think she should get some kind of prize for that kind of information, don’t you Jenny? 🙂

LOL Jenny. I like the way there is an official record of 134 an hour. It’s like every woman knows they could manage more than that unofficially.

Hum, random facts. Well, I do know that Jeanne Bare was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe (which even though it sounds dirty, means go round the world … which also sounds like a euphemism, so lets move on…). However, she managed to get half way round as a brave and tough sailor (man) called Jean Bare before she was discovered to be a woman by a bunch of randy natives in the (wait for it) Virgin Isles. History doesn’t record anything about he orgasmic abilities.

In China the number 38 (san ba) is used euphemistically as a verb meaning to gossip or talk excessively about nothing important, or as an adjective to describe someone who gossips or talks excessively (generally applied to women). I’m not sure which came first, but I think it no coincidence that International Women’s Day is on March 8th (3/8)

ROFLMAO! What a fun post! And I learned new things about the power of women. 134?!!! That’s all I’m gonna say . . . everything else I can think of will just get me in trouble! Thanks for a great laugh.